Indonesian Journal of Physics

Vol 22 No. 4, October 2011

107
Conductivity Effect on the Capacitance Measurement
of a Parallel-Plate Capacitive Sensor System
Peyman Azimi Anaraki
Department of Physics
Islamic Azad University, Takestan-Iran
e-mail:peyphysics2004@yahoo.co.uk
Received 31 J anuary 2011, Revised 2 J une 2011, Accepted 23 August 2011
A bstract
In this article design and operation of a parallel-plate capacitive sensor based on the dielectric capacitance and
conductance change of the gap medium is reported. The designed system was used to determine characteristics of
different water liquids as a result of the capacitance variations. The air gap capacitance is measured and then by
filling the gap with a liquid the capacitance is monitored for different liquids. Proposed sensor is used for the
distilled, tap, boiled, and salt water measurements and the capacitance results are compared. A big difference about
45.5F in capacitance values for the salt and distilled water shows a high sensitivity, which can be used to
recognize different water liquids. The experimental results are promising for water liquids and verify the successful
operation of such a device as a liquid sensor, a useful method for checking the electrical quality of the water that is
required for different applications.
Keywords: Sensor; Capacitance; Permittivity change; Conductivity; Water liquids.
1. Introduction
There has been a great deal of interest in the
development of precise capacitive sensor in recent
years. Different reports on the design,
characterization, operation and possible applications
of such devices have been given by the author
1,2)
and
others
3-7)
. A CMOS-compatible capacitive high
temperature pressure sensor was reported
8)
.
Measurements in the range of 50-340

C for
temperature and pressure for the range of 0-125 bar
were performed by such a small sensor. Also for
pressure measurement in harsh environment a
capacitive differential sensor has been reported, which
operated for the pressure range of 0-1 bar
9)
. In another
study, a monolithically integrated surface
micromachined touch mode capacitive pressure sensor
was reported
10)
. Their fabrication was reported to be a
fully CMOS-compatible touch mode capacitive
pressure sensor. The frequency and voltage out put of
such sensors were about 5-25 Hz/psi, and 10-50
mV/psi in the linear pressure range of 8-60 psi.
Capacitive sensors have been used in many
industrial applications to control processes and in
machine diagnostic tasks. However several problems
including stray capacitance, baseline drift, stability
and sensitivity have motivated the development of
new transducers and measuring systems. To alleviate
some of the problems in this field a variety of the
capacitive sensor systems have been developed and
reported. In this respect, for example, the effects of a
guard ring electrode on the operation of a capacitive
transducer have been investigated
11)
. Development of
a three-dimensional capacitance imaging system for
measuring the density of fluidized beds was
reported
12)
. In another report, design and operation of
a capacitive sensor for water content monitoring in a
production line was presented
13)
. Design and
performance of simple capacitive sensors for mass
measurement is given by Ref.
3)
. Among several
industries, the scale industry has been developing
rapidly and there are demands for weighting devices
with good qualities at low prices.
In another report, capacitance sensors have
been used for the measurement of the phase volume
fraction in two-phase pipelines
14)
. The effect of phase
distribution or flow pattern was considered for
determination of the volume fraction in two phase
pipe-line by using the capacitance measurements.
They have shown that the capacitance measured
depends not only on the volume fraction but also on
the phase distribution and they have shown such effect
by an example. In that article they described the
resulting capacitance when the electrodes are half
filled vertically or horizontally similar to the series or
the parallel capacitive forms.
On the other hand many researchers have
focused on the development of the readout circuits.
The goal of such research has been to introduce a
readout circuit that can be used for low-noise
operation with the cancellation of the operational
amplifier1/f-noise and offset voltage
15)
. A new
capacitiveto-phase conversion technique for
measuring very small capacitance changes has been
reported
16)
.This method provided a powerful mean for
recording very small capacitance changes. Much
progress has been made over the last years in
developing the capacitor transducers and
complementing measuring circuits. For the precision
in instrumentation and measurements, the small
capacitances to be measured are in the range of 0.01-
10 pF with a required resolution of better than 0.01-10
fF. This requirement along with other considerations
108 IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011

such as environmental effects, structural stability, and
standardization challenges the development of a much
more sensitive and reliable capacitance sensor
systems
17)
.
2. Experiment
The experimental setup, measurement method,
materials and sample preparations are described in this
section.
2.1 Setup
Capacitance measurement system in general
includes a sensing probe and a measuring module. Our
experimental setup is a simple one, which uses the
capacitive sensing probe and the measuring module as
shown in Figure 1. The experimental arrangement
includes the parallel-plate capacitive sensor, two
digital multimeter (DMM) modules (SANWA, PC
5000), and a PC. As shown in Figure 1, one of the
digital multimeters is used for the capacitance
measurement and a similar one together with a
temperature probe (T-300PC) is used for the
temperature measurements
18)
. The software (PC Link
plus) allows one to log measuring data into PC
through RS232 port with digital multimeter PC series.
The operation of this software is possible by using any
operational system such as the windows 98,
NT4.0/2000/ME/XP versions. It provides function for
capacitance measurements using the charge/discharge
method and capacitance in the range of 0.01 nF to
9.99 mF can be measured with a resolution of about
0.01 nF. The nominal input impedance of the DMM is
about 10 M and 30 pF. The specified accuracy of the
DMM for 50.00-500.0 nF capacitance range is about
(0.8 % rdg+3dgt) and (2 % rdg+3dgt) for the 50.00
F range. The temperature probe consists of a platonic
thin thermoresistor (1000 at 0 C) with a
temperature measurement range of -50 to 300 C. The
response time of this probe is about 7 seconds and
offers an accuracy of about 1.9 C in temperature
recording.
The proposed capacitive probe shown in Figure
1 consists of two parallel-plate that is separated by
2mm, the total length of electroplates, 18.5 cm, the
width of the electroplates is 17.5 cm. when the space
between the capacitor plates is completely filled with
the water liquids, the capacitance is:
d
A
C = (1)

Figure 1. Block diagram of the experimental
arrangement for capacitive sensor.
Where is permittivity of the dielectric
medium between the plates. A is electrode area and d
is gap distance between the electrodes. However Eq.
(1) is only valid when A>>d. several problems, such
as edge effect, can cause deviation in the actual
capacity from the one obtained in Eq. (1). For this
reason, various attempts have been made to design
different transducers in order to reduce these effects.
2.2 Measurement method
Depending on the capacitance electrode
configuration of the sensor the equivalent circuit can
be considered for the case of invasive (direct contact
between the metal electrode and liquid), and non-
invasive (no contact between the metal electrode and
liquid) sensors. In a simple form if we consider a
uniform liquid with the given permittivity and
conductivity, the equivalent circuits for the case of
non-invasive and invasive sensors can be
considered
19)
.
It must be mentioned that the given capacitance
value is the measured value by the charge transfer
reading circuit and fluid capacitance must be deduced
from the measured values. Also noted that the
capacitance sensing is affected by the conductivity
variations of the components
20)
. This conductivity
problem has been the main concern in the field of
dielectric measurements and several attempts have
been made to compensate for such variation and for a
simple case the effect of conductivity is presented by a
resistive element in parallel with the sensor
capacitance. However, for sensors using non-invasive
electrodes and those measuring two-component fluids;
sensor system must be represented by more complex
equivalent circuit models. As a result an investigation
into the effects of component conductivity should be
done for precise measurements.
Equivalent circuits for the invasive and non-
invasive cases are shown in Figure 2(a) and Figure
2(b), respectively. In the invasive situation when there
is a contact between the metal and liquid it is
equivalent to a circuit consisting of a capacitor C
x
in
parallel with a resistor R
x
. In this analysis R
x

representing the resistance of the fluid due to its
conductivity effect, and C
x
shows its capacitance as a
result of its permittivity. For the non-invasive case as
shown in Figure 2 (b) an extra capacitor C is
considered in series with R
x
and C
x
, which are acting
in parallel. As can be seen, measured capacitance
element is depending on both C
x
and R
x
of the fluid
under measurement.
In general a variety of techniques have been
employed for measuring the absolute and relative
capacitance changes. Oscillation, Resonance,
charge/discharge, AC Bridge, and capacitive-to-phase
conversion are the most common methods for such
capacitance measurements. Since the measurement
module uses the charge/discharge (C/DC) circuit,
therefore, this method is described here. The
charge/discharge operation is based on the charging of
IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011 109
an unknown capacitance under study C
x
to a voltage
V
c
via a CMOS switch with resistance R
on
(Figure 3
a) and then discharging this capacitor into a charge
detector via a second switch (Fig3 b).


(a) (b)
Figure 2. Equivalent circuits for the invasive (a) and
non-invasive (b) electrode arrangements.
A DMM with the given specification based on
the charge /discharge operation is used here for the
capacitance measurements. This capacitance
measuring module is capable of measuring precisely
the capacitance values in the range of 0.01 nF to 50
mF.

(a)

(b)
Figure 3. Schematics of the capacitance charge (a) and
discharge (b) processes.
The capacitance measurements for the parallel-
plate capacitive probe shown in Figure 1 depend on
the permittivity, , of the liquid and its resistance
factor that depends only on the conductivity, , of the
liquid. Thus one can write:
C
x
= f
1
(), (2)
R
x
= f
2
(). (3)
The capacitive element C is obtained only by the
insulation of the electrodes and reducing the
conductivity effect. As described, in general there are
invasive and non-invasive electrode arrangements.
For the case of non-invasive sensors, in measuring
capacitance of a liquid, the effect of resistive
component is usually very small because of the
dielectric insulator. For the invasive sensors the effect
of R
x
on the measurement of C
x
can not be neglected
and the effect of conductivity of the liquid must be
considered in analysis. However, the effect of R
x
can
be negligible if the on resistance of the charge switch
R
on
is small compared with R
x
, and if the discharge
time, which is determined by the switching-on time of
the resistance of the discharging switch, is short
compared with the time constant given by R
x
C
x
.
To analyze electrical conduction of the tested
water liquids, additional measurements were made on
the electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved
solid (TDS) density of the samples used in this
experiment. In conductivity meters usually
measurements is made by placing a cell (probe) in an
electrolytic solution. The cell consists of two
electrodes of specific size, separated at a specific
distance that defines the cell K factor. The
conductivity of a liquid is determined from the ratio of
current to the voltage between the two electrodes.
For measurements a conductivity meter (Hach
Company, sension5) is used
21)
, which is useful for a
variety of applications such as water quality,
measuring salinity (a measure of dissolved salts in a
given mass of solution), acids, bases, and other
qualities of aqueous samples. The meter features a
digital LCD display that simultaneously displays
temperature and other measurement results. The
specifications of this meter are as follows:
Conductivity range of 0-199.9 mS/cm and resolution
of 0.01 S/cm to 0.1 mS/cm, respectively, for the
selected measurement ranges. The ranges for TDS are:
0-50 g/L with a resolution of 0.1 mg/L to 0.1 g/L for
different ranges. Measurement range for salinity is 0-
42 ppt with a resolution of 0.1 ppt and an accuracy
of 0.1 ppt. The measuring temperature range is from
-10 C to 105 C. The accuracy for conductivity is
0.5% of range, for TDS is 0.5% of full scale, and for
temperature is 0.3 C for 0-70 C and 1.0 C for
70-105 C. Calibration of this device is based on a
standard NaCl solution having a conductivity of 1000
S/cm at 25 C.
2.3 Samples and procedures
Fortunately this experiment does not require
many reagents and complicated chemical procedures
for sample preparation. In this experiment one type of
samples was used including the single aqueous
solutions. The single phase solution includes the
distilled water, tap, boiled, and mineral drinking water
samples. The distilled water used in this experiment
110 IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011

was made by an apparatus operating based on the
boiling technique. All other agents and liquids were at
regular grade purchased from the related suppliers.
For the water salt preparation regular grade salt
(NaCl) was used for the preparation of a sample with
the concentration of about mg/L.
3. Results
The minimum reliable limit of DMM is about
0.01 nF, therefore the direct results for air reading
were not so reliable. However, when the gap is filled
with a liquid, since the dielectric constant of the fluid
is larger than that of the air, then the measured
capacitance value is increased and the capacitance
value is acceptable for these water liquids. As
described, our measuring apparatus is operating under
the charge/discharge technique. In order to test the
precision of the capacitance measuring module, in the
first experiment the capacitance of air is measured
(0.12 nF).
The air gap capacitance of the probe is around
0.09-0.12 nF. The air gap capacitance for the designed
probe is about 0.11 nF. However, as described this
value is different from the calculated value from Eq.
(1).It must be pointed that the theoretical value is for
the cell that air gap between two plates is very small
(maximum 2mm) and the mentioned difference seems
reasonable. In the next test the capacitance value for
the distilled water is measured. In the first case the
measured value is about 6.5 F. The theoretical
capacitance due to a dielectric constant of about 80 for
the distilled water leads to a dielectric capacitance
value of 0.348 nF, which is much less than the
measured value. This leads to the fact that the
measured value is not the capacitance value of the
distilled water and must be compensated for the
conductance effect.
In the next study to see the capacitance
variation of the different water liquids a series of
measurements are performed and results are shown in
Figure 4. As can be seen in Figure 4, the distilled
water shows the lowest measured value and the water
salt solution shows the highest (61.8 F) value among
the tested liquids.
For the case of distilled water the capacitance
value starts from the 6.5 F and reaches to about 15.3
F in a few seconds time interval. As described
conductivity of the liquid material has important role
in the capacitance measurements and as a result in
sensor operation. From Figure 4 two major points can
be concluded. First, the measured capacitance value
recorded by the module is not only the liquid
capacitance but also the capacitance due to the liquid
conductance. Thus the present probe provides a
sensitive cell for the investigation of the conductance
effect in such measurements. Among the tested water
liquids the salt water shows the highest measured
capacitance value of 61.8 F while the distilled water
shows the lowest measured value of 15.3 F.
Considering a notable difference (45.5 F) for salt
water in capacitance values for the different water
liquids is indicative of the high sensitivity of the
reported sensor.
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time(s)
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e
(
n
F
)
Distilled Water Tap Water
Boiled Water Salt Water

Figure 4. Capacitance values for different water
liquids.
Second point is that the measured values are
relatively constant for the distilled, boiled, and tap
water measurements, but larger fluctuations are
observed in the salt water measurements. This leads to
the fact that such fluctuations are certainly due to the
conductivity effect. The designed sensor, therefore,
can be used to investigate dynamic behavior of the
liquid in such measurements. It can be concluded that
the measured capacitance values are due to the
dielectric term and a second term related to the
conductivity of the liquid. For the distilled water the
conductance effect is minimum while for the salt
water has the considerable value. For the air gap such
term vanishes and the measured capacitance is only
due to the first f
1
term as shown in Eq. (2). Thus the
fluid capacitance can be obtained from the difference
of the measured capacitance values and the f
2
term,
Eq. (3), due to the conductivity effect.
A comparison of the results for different water
liquids at given temperature is listed in Table 1. The
electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid
(TDS), capacitance(C), and temperature (T) are listed
in Table 1. As can be seen in Table1 for the water
samples, the EC factor is increased as well as the TDS
in the given order for the tested water liquids.
Considering the capacitance value with the EC values
confirms our argument about the effect of the
electrical conductance on the capacitance
measurements. It is noted that there is a relation
between the increase of the electrical conductivity of
the liquids and the increase of the measured
capacitance. Looking at Table 1, it is noted that the
salt water posses the highest EC value of 22100 S/cm
while the distilled water shows the least EC value of
9.2 S/cm at the same temperature.


IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011 111
Table 1. Comparison of the capacitance values for different water liquids.

Temperature
(C)
Measured
Capacitance
(F)
Total Dissolved Solid
Density
(mg/L)
Electrical
Conductivity
(S/m)

Sample

25.4 19.6 11.3 9.2 Distilled Water
25.6 39.5 293.2 590 Boiled Water
25.6 36.1 220.5 443 Mineral Water
25.1 29.2 190.1 375 Tap Water
25.4 61.4 13100 22100 Salt Water
*For the stabilized condition

In Figure 5 the repeatability of the results for
the reported capacitive cell sensor is shown. Such
parameter indicates the ability of the sensor to
reproduce output reading when operating under the
same ambient condition. To provide such a condition
a number of 100 measurements were made
consequently for a series of readings. Such
measurements are performed for all the samples and
for the case of air-gap are shown in Figure 5. The
reproducibility of the measured values for such
consequent measurements is estimated to be about 1%
of the full scale value.
Stability of a sensor is another important
parameter, which is described in this study. In general
such factor shows the ability of the sensor to maintain
its performance characteristics for a certain period of
time. In this experiment the capacitance values for the
air-gap and liquid-gap cases are measured for a period
of 100 s in 1 s increment. Both measured values (dry
and wet cases) show a good stability for this period of
time, which is about 1 % of the full scale. The
repeatability of the reported sensor is also
investigated. Such parameter indicates the ability of
the sensor to reproduce output reading when operating
under the same condition. To provide such a similar
ambient conditions a number of about 100
measurements were made consequently. The error of
the measured values for the consequent measurements
is estimated to be about 2% of the full scale.
Air-Reproducibility
0.08
0.085
0.09
0.095
0.1
0.105
0.11
0.115
0.12
0.125
1 20 39 58 77 96
Time(s)
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e
(
n
F
)

Figure 5. Reproducibility of the result for the sensor.
To understand the importance of permittivity
variation as a result of different liquids, in Figure 6 we
consider the measured values for a period of 100s in
1s increments. As indicated in Figure 6 the average
permittivity values given for different liquids are
1246.455, 868.625, 721.654, 421.325
m
nF
, for salt,
boiled, tap, and distilled water. Generally the
permittivity is more dependent on temperature and
purity of materials. As described the highest measured
permittivity value is 1246.455
m
nF
for salt water while
the lowest measured permittivity is 421.325 for
distilled water, considering a significant difference
(825.13
m
nF
) in permittivity value for different liquids
is indicative of the highest sensitivity of the reported
sensor, then finally from Figure 6 we find out stability
and sensitivity are two major properties for the
application of this sensor.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time(s)
P
e
r
m
i
t
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
n
F
/
m
)
Distilled Water Tap Water
Boiled Water Salt Water

Figure 6. Comparison of the permittivity values for
different water liquids as a function of time.
To see the capacitance variation as a result of
different water liquids a series of measurements are
performed and the measured values are shown in
Figure 4. As can be seen in Figure 4, results of
recorded capacitance values for distilled, boiled, tap,
and salt waters as a function of measuring time are
presented. The average capacitance values are
112 IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011

19278.54 nF, 29345.26, 41235.47, 61516.12 nF for
distilled, tap, boiled, and salt waters, respectively. As
described before, these values are just the measured
capacitance values, which are much higher than the
capacitance value of the liquids. The capacitance
value of the distilled water is around 3 pF as reported
in Ref.
20)
. It is noted that the measured values are
mainly related to the conductance term and can be
used effectively to monitor the conductance and its
dynamic developments in liquid filling.
For the case of distilled water the capacitance
value starts from the 6.5 F and reaches to about
19.59 F in a 450 s time interval (as can be seen in
Fig7.). As indicated the value given for the distilled
water in Figure 4 is for the case of the stabilized final
condition. However, for the other water liquids the
stable condition is reached quickly in about a few
seconds and then measured values are plotted. As
described conductivity of the liquid material has
important role in the capacitance measurements and as
a result in sensor operation.
Distilled Water
y =0.0256x +10.1
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time(s)
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e
(

F
)
Measured capacitance
Linear (Measured
capacitance)

Figure 7. Capacitance measurement as a function of
time for distilled water.
From Figure 4 two major points can be
concluded. First, the measured capacitance signal
value recorded by the module is not only the liquid
capacitance but also the output due to the liquid
conductance. Such measured value is due to both of
the dielectric reactance capacitance, conductance term,
and the stray terms. Thus the present device provides a
sensitive probe for the investigation of the
conductance effect in such measurements. Among the
tested water liquids the salt water shows the highest
measured capacitance value of 61.51 F while the
distilled water shows the lowest measured value of
19.52 F. Considering a notable difference (41.99 F
for salt water) in capacitance values for the different
water liquids is indicative of the high sensitivity of the
reported sensor. To verify this point in another
experiment the capacitance and the resistance of the
sensor cell filled with different liquids are measured at
the recorded temperature and the results of these
measurements are listed in Table1. As can be seen the
reciprocal of the resistance shown as conductance is
also obtained and shown in Table1. It is noted that
there is a direct relation between the increase of the
conductance and that of the measured capacitance
output.
Second point is that the measured values are
relatively constant for the distilled, boiled, and tap
water measurements, but as indicated in Figure 8,
larger fluctuations are observed in the salt water
measurements. This leads to the fact that such
fluctuations are certainly due to the conductivity
effect, which are more pronounced for the salt water
due to higher conductivity. As can be seen in Figure
4, such effect is smaller for the more pure distilled
water, but the presence of conductive impurity plays a
more important role in the case of salt water. The
designed sensor, therefore, can be used to investigate
dynamic behavior of the liquid in such measurements.
Salt Water
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time(s)
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e
(

F
)
Series1

Figure 8. Variation of the capacitance as a function of
time for salt water.
The variation of the capacitance as a function
of time for distilled water is presented in Figure 7. The
capacitance value starts from 6.5 F at about 5 s and
reaches to about 19.27 F at 450 s. Using the add
trend line option of the program a fitted curve
(dashed-line ) is also presented in Figure 7. As can be
seen in Figure 7, the measured value shows a rapid
growth and reaches a stable condition in about 7.5
minutes. Comparing the experimental results with the
fitted polynomial curve it is noted that there is a good
agreement between the measured values and the fitted
one for the rising part and only there is a little
deviation for the later times. This time variation
situation tested several times and it was reproducible
for the distilled water. Such dynamic behavior can be
explained as following. The physical model of the
situation when there is no contact between the
electrode metal and liquid is equivalent to a circuit
consisting of a capacitor of reactance X
1
in series with
a resistor R
x
(liquid resistance). When there is a
contact between the electrode metal and liquid the
equivalent circuit is different from the first case and
IJP Vol. 22 No. 4, 2011 113
can be considered to be a capacitor of reactance X
2
in
parallel with a resistor R
b
both in series with a
resistance of R
2
, in which R
b
is the resistance of the
liquid bridge and R
2
is the resistance of the main bulk
of the liquid. At the start of the liquid filling the bridge
resistance is not fully formed and the measured value
is low. As time goes on the bridge resistance is build
up and the reading value is rapidly increased. After
some time the contact resistance is fully formed and
the output reading of the sensor is almost constant.
The reported sensor also provides a mean to
investigate the dynamic behavior of such liquid bride
resistance formation. Comparing our results for the
distilled, tap, and salt water it was noticed that such a
bridge contact is formed very quickly for the samples
with high conductivity effect, which verifies the
described bridge contact physical model.
Air-Stability
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
0.11
0.12
0.13
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Measurement Number
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e
(
n
F
)
DrySignal
Average Capacitance

Figure 9. Reproducibility of the results for the
designed sensor.
Precision is defined as a measure of the
reproducibility of the measurements that is considered
as a figure of merit for such a sensing device. Figure 9
shows the repeatability of the reported sensor. In this
sensor such a parameter indicates the ability of the
capacitive sensor to reproduce output reading when
the same measurement is applied to it consequently,
under the same condition. To provide such a similar
ambient conditions measurements were made
consequently for a series of 50 readings. The output
capacitances for such repeated measurements are
shown in Figure 9, which varies from 0.09 nF to 0.12
nF at most. The average signal value calculated to be
0.1054 with the standard deviation of 0.009521 in
measurements. For a better comparison average value
of capacitance measurement (Dry signal) is also
indicated as a dashed line in Figure 9.
5. Conclusion
As described, the invasive sensor such as the
one reported here provided a useful mean to study the
conductance effect of the reactance capacitance and its
role in capacitance measurements. On the other hand,
the non-invasive design is more suitable for studies
concerning the permittivity effect of the liquids. In
either case one needs to minimize the impact of the
other factor in order to obtain more reliable readings.
Considering the results both of the capacitive probe
and the capacitance readout circuits have important
role in the accuracy of the absolute measured values
for different type of conducting and non-conducting
liquids.
For the case of a gap material with low
conductivity the charge/discharge method was used
with the proposed parallel-plate probe to measure
capacitance. This was a useful method for the
checking the quality of the water, which is required
for different applications. Although the results
reported here were for the water liquids, but the
reported sensor could be effectively implemented for
the study of other conducting liquids such as industrial
oils, and liquids, which have wide applications as
lubricator, electric insulator, and cooling agents with a
notable conductance contribution. Arrangement
described also can be used for liquid mixture checking
and also to see effect of impurities in the water
solution.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Islamic Azad
University Branch of Shoushtar and Takestan. The
authors like to acknowledge this support and thank the
office of Vice President for Research and Technology.
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